Share This Story!

Purdue employees still in dark on leaves policy

Recent push back against a new policy that consolidates employees' sick, personal and vacation time into one category has led Purdue officials to rethink their decision and revisit how they came to their original conclusion. Purdue University announced Tuesday that Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Bill Sullivan will of the new plan to meet with employee focus groups this week, gathering comments and suggested changes to the new plan.

Purdue employees still in dark on leaves policy

It was standing room only in the Purdue Memorial Union’s South Ballroom for a University Senate forum last Friday on proposed changes to paid time-off policies for employees. Purdue later announced it would pause the roll out of the new policy after employees voiced their opinions against the change.(Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

At the moment, Purdue University employees are in the dark about pending changes to their paid time off benefits.

Recent pushback against a new policy that consolidates sick, personal and vacation time into one category has led Purdue officials to rethink their decision and revisit how they came to their original conclusion.

Until those meetings are complete, Sullivan's office has declined to comment on what changes may take place or when employees will know how their plans are affected.

But the tidal wave of opposition, which came to a head at a forum last week, and the consequent backpedaling suggests the leaves committee's initial meetings with employee focus groups last spring were ineffective at best.

The focus groups were meant to help officials craft a better plan for employees, who suggested the current policy was too confusing and needed to be simplified, Trenten Klingerman, interim vice president of human resources, said last month after the new policy was announced.

The result, however, was ultimately a reduction in the total amount of paid time off that hasn't sat well with employees.

Under the old plan, non-exempt employees — clerical, service, operational and technical staff — received a maximum of 31 days of paid time off; exempt employees — faculty, administrative, management and professional positions — received a max of 91, based largely on years of service.

The new plan limits both classifications to 25 days.

Vic Lechtenberg, a special assistant to the president and chairman of the leaves committee, wrote in a letter to employees this week "that the original feedback received by the Leaves Committee in their pre-rollout sessions did not provide sufficient insight."

"At the time we thought those focus groups provided the needed input," Lechtenberg said in an email Wednesday. "In retrospect, these focus sessions — for whatever reason — clearly did not provide some of the insights that are now coming forward."

Trenten Klingerman, said focus groups were comprised of 25-30 employees with similar classifications, including subsets of faculty members, administrative and professional employees, clerical staff, service workers and business office employees.

Non-exempt employees were perhaps most vocal against the changes. Yet those same employees occupied only two of 24 seats on the leaves committee and were targeted in two focus groups — the ones comprised of clerical and service workers — which each met with the committee just once during the pre-rollout stage.

Neither Klingerman nor Lechtenberg said they thought non-exempt staff were underrepresented throughout the process.

During this week's round of focus groups, Klingerman said employees can make more direct recommendations now that they've seen the new plan.

"We have the benefit of them having seen our thoughts," Klingerman said. "So they've seen what the proposed plan looks like, so I think that we'll have a much richer discussion about our thought process and their reaction to that."

He noted officials are gathering a wider array of feedback than before by encouraging employees to make suggestions through email at timeoff@purdue.edu.

"It's not just the focus groups," he said. "We're getting hundreds and hundreds of well thought out, constructive input and feedback ... so we're considering not only the focus groups that are going to be held this week but also all of the feedback we're getting through these various sources."

Attend a focus group

Purdue employees can sign up for the sessions by emailing timeoff@purdue.edu with a session number they would like to attend ("Session X")